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Fishwives Lace Shoal

This painting caught my eye last winter, and so when the coast was clear in spring I dove into a lace designing frenzy. For a while I have wanted to make a female counterpart to my Fishermens Neck Gansey, and so here it is finally ~~~ done & dusted! Inspired by the painting, and in the same colorway as the painting …

Fishwives Shoal = shawl + stole. ( Okay, plus a cowl thrown in! ) A play on words, indeed. As many of you have been reading all the fishy posts leading up to this one (especially Shoal or School? will help you get the name of my new design). Fish tails motifs with yarn-overs resembling splashes, and waves in-between create a beautiful lace pattern. Three styles, and three sizes in each.

The Shawl is square, and worn folded diagonally around neck double thick and tucked into corset, or just pin together. This one shown in pink is the small shawl(ette) size, while largest size, with diagonal of 64”, wraps around whole torso as a traditional Scottish hap does, and would also do nicely as a throw.

The Stole is just as a French neck & shoulder wrap, sized from wide scarf to full shoulder wrap.

Medium stole.

Back of medium stole.

Small stole.

The Cowl is simplest of the three styles, and knit in-the-round.

Medium cowl

But of all the three styles, I think I love most is to wear two of them together!

Small stole in rose, with medium cowl in natural white.

Medium stole in light grey, with small shawl in pink.

Medium stole in light grey, with small stole in rose.

Well that about wraps up an epic project. I will be laying low for a while, but soon back on another big idea I am sure. ~~ Boat loads of thanks to Wendy from Ontario for her test-knitting and generous help with figuring things out! Thanks Wen! ~~xx

16 thoughts on “Fishwives Lace Shoal”

Hi Kelly!!! Now there’s me done & dusted, a hell of a lot of work went into this. I even purchased a fish-like shawl pin, not owning one previously. I have not answered your last, but now I will get to it. I hope you’re doing great, and thank you for your encouragement!!! xx